The chicks seems to be dying inside the egg. WHY?

[rhino533]

This is my first time hatching eggs. I started off with 16 eggs. Day 5 in the incubator I Candled them and 5 were duds and 11 were fertilized. I candled again on day 7 and all seemed every egg had movment and seems healthy. I canadled again today which is day 11 and 5 eggs were for sure ok 6 didn't seem to change much from day 7 and there was no movment in the eggs, there was just a black spot about the size of a nickel. I decided to open 2 of the 6 eggs that didn't change. There was a baby bird inside both eggs but I'm pretty sure they were dead. I decided to put the remaining 4 eggs back into the incubator just in case. What would cause them to die? The temp in the incubator has been pretty steady at 99.5 - 100.2. Should there be movement in all the healthy eggs? If there is no movement would the eggs be most likely dead? The 2 eggs I opened there was no movement at all from the little chicks that were inside.

 

[CrestedGirl]

What is the humidity level? Where did you get the eggs?

 

[rhino533]

Quote:
The eggs are from my Hen. The humidity got a bit high for the first 5 days so I put a smaller cup of water into the incubator which has totally helped. Do you think because the humidity was higher than it should be that would kill the chicks?

 

[ChestnutRidge]

I've candled and not seen movement but had chicks hatch from those eggs later. If they are developing, I'd leave them alone whether there is visible movement or not. From my last hatch, I've decided not to candle at all until day 14. By then, it's pretty decisive whether they are developed or not.

 

[camalianus]

Some causes of embryos dying are: humidity too high, poor nutrition of breeder flock, lethal genes in stock, vitamin E deficiency or nutritional deficiency, poor ventilation of incubator, disease or infected eggs.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

And the other reason is "who the he** knows". I'll go to my grave with this question unanswered. I've had it happen when the temp, humidity, turning, ventilation was perfect the entire incubation and the parent stock practically eats caviar they are so well fed.

There is a certain "who knows why" factor to hatching, I'm afraid.

 

[rhino533]

Quote:
How big should the ventilation holes be in the incubator? I have 1/2 holes on 2 sides of the incubator (2 holes in total). Do I need to make the holes bigger? or add more? or are the holes big enough?

 

[rhino533]

Quote:
I feed my Hen/roos too well. She eats better than me and gets extra vitamins and calcium weekly. If it's anything, it might be the incubator ventilation or the humidity got to high. This is my first time hatching from my home made incubator. There are probably things I need to fix, all a learning experience.

 

[chickenfeverforever]

I had the same problem with my very first hatch as well. One day I would candle and I would have very small babies moving around and then slowly they would start to die off. I opened all my eggs and they are much smaller then they should have been, Appear to be stuck at the top of the shell and deff dead. I am not sure what it happened. I assumed it was because of LG I was using having such unstable temps and because I handled and candled the eggs almost daily allowing germs into the eggs. But mostly the LG temp fluxs I blame for the loss. Sorry about your chicks. Since I bought my Brinsea, I have had 0 losses.

 

[BrattishTaz]

Day 5 is a bit early to determine an egg is a dud. I'm thinking you may have jumped the gun on a few of them.